It was November 13, the second day of the 2005 rifle season in Missouri and in need of some fresh venison for the freezer; I’d decided to spend the afternoon doe hunting near my hometown of Willard.  I was hunting a farm just a few miles from home and knew exactly which tree stand I would use to hunt for a doe; it was a big cedar overlooking an open field with a heavy wood line to the east.

I’d been hunting this farm for the past two years and knew that the does and yearlings liked to come out of the cedar trees along this open field to feed right before dark.  I gathered up my gear and made the short drive from my house to Bluebird Lane.

As I made my way up the long winding lane I jumped a couple of does.  I smiled to myself feeling fortunate that the deer were up and moving this evening.  I’ve always thought it’s a good sign to see wildlife on the way to a hunt.

The wind was blowing a calm 7-10 mph out of the northwest this evening.  Perfect for my chosen stand location!  Despite a favorable wind, I still sprayed down with scent neutralizer and cover scent.   I sprayed all my clothes, my fanny pack and the bottom of my boots; and was ready to make my way to the cedar tree.

I carefully climbed up into my “nest” in the big old cedar, pulled my rifle up and quietly loaded the shells into my 7mm-08.  I settled back against the trunk of the tree, relaxed and ready to wait for the arrival of the feeding whitetail’s.  Every few minutes I would pick up my binoculars and glass the tree lines for any unsuspecting deer.  It wasn’t long until I caught some movement about 250-yards directly south of me.  I picked up my binoculars to get a closer look.  It was a yearling followed closely by a mature doe.  Unfortunately, they were on the backside of a hill and all I could distinguish was their heads and the top of their backs.   I didn’t have a safe shot on this doe, so I let them just browse on across the field.  It wasn’t long before a little fork horn took almost the exact same path as the doe and yearling had traveled. 

As the deer activity quieted, every once in a while I would hit my rattle bag followed by a series of grunt calls in hopes of catching the attention of a buck traveling through the area, though I was content with “doe hunting.”  After each rattle and call series, I’d scan the area looking for signs of movement.  I was concentrating on the south end of the field, since that’s where I had seen deer earlier in the evening.  Apparently I was concentrating a little too hard on the south end of the field, because as I nonchalantly glanced over my left shoulder to the north I spotted a lone buck out in the middle of the field!

With only ten minutes of legal shooting left and the sun setting, I slowly and quietly rotated in the stand to face the direction of the buck.  Fortunately the wind was in my favor so I could relax a bit, get into position and take a good look at this buck to see if he was indeed one I wanted to shoot.

I raised my binoculars to get a better look at him.  He was working his way across the field, head lowered and feeding.  If he’d just hold his head up for a minute, I could make a decision.  I set my binoculars down and picked up my rifle.  As I peered through the scope, I caught a glimpse of his rack and thought he looked like a decent 8-pointer, similar in size to the deer I’d shot last season.

I eased my rifle up on the rest; I wanted to take a longer look at the buck through my scope before I made up my mind.  I studied him a bit more; he had a nice high rack, good mass and was about as wide as his ears.  “Yeah, he’s pretty nice”, I assured myself, as I quickly decided I’d take him.  I eased the safety off and the buck took a few more steps as I followed him through my scope, and then he stopped; just the moment I was waiting for!  I put the cross hairs on the buck’s right front shoulder and squeezed the trigger.  The buck jumped and bolted into the trees.  I lost sight of him when he hit the heavy woods and brush at the fence line.  I couldn’t see him but could hear a “scuffle” and knew instantly that he was trying to get across the fence line and having trouble.

I glanced at my watch to see there was just five minutes of legal shooting time left, so I decided I’d better get down from my stand and make sure I’d made a good shot on the deer.  I emptied the ammunition out of my rifle and lowered it to the ground.  I didn’t want to waste any time so I left the rest of my gear and climbed down.  I untied my rifle, reloaded it and made my way quickly toward the last place I had heard the deer.  I reached the fence and scanned the area; I couldn’t see him on my side so I guessed he had finally made it over.  I carefully crossed the fence and went thru the brush about fifty yards and there laid my dead buck! 

One up-close look at this big-bodied 8-pointer and I knew I was going to need some help getting him loaded up.  He was definitely a little better than my 8-point buck from last fall.  I breathed a big sigh of relief, smiled, and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket.  As I made my call for assistance, I stared in amazement at my downed deer, still in awe at how this buck in it’s last few moments of life could have made it across a woven-wire fence topped with two strands of barbed wire with his front right shoulder virtually missing. Whitetail’s are truly amazing animals and have incredible capabilities even when near death.

Knowing help was on the way, I tried to find the clearest path I could to drag the buck back to the fence line, which wasn’t very easy since he rested in the middle of a green briar patch.  By the time I got the deer drug to the fence my husband Jimmy was pulling in to help me.  I met him at the fence and told him I need some pliers to loosen the woven wire panel so we could pull my buck underneath.  I guess you could say this was my first time working fence; but I was more than happy to do it.

We got my buck drug under the fence and loaded him on the trailer.  Despite the adrenalin still running through me, I was thankful Jimmy had brought the trailer so we didn’t have to lift the heavy buck up into the back of a truck!  As we drove across the field to leave, Jimmy looked at me and exclaimed, “That buck really came across this wide-open field?!”  “Yes, he did”, I answered with a grin, thinking to myself how ironic that I had just come for a doe!

My gear for this hunt included the following:

• RedHead for Her Silent-Hide clothing (from Bass Pro Shops)
• RedHead Extreme Fanny Pack
• Hunter’s Specialties Scent-A-Way spray w/ Fresh Earth cover scent
• Bushnell Legend 10x42 Binoculars
• Bushnell Elite 3200 3-9x40mm Scope
• Winchester Supreme Ballistic Silvertip 7mm-08 ammunition
• Hunter’s Specialties Primetime True Talker with Rattling Bag

Marti Davis is a member of the RedHead Pro Field Staff hunting team, Hunter’s Specialties Pro Field Staff, Bushnell Field Staff and Parker Bows Field Staff.  She & Jimmy, her husband, live in Willard, Missouri where she was born and raised.

“Hometown Buck” was reprinted with permission of www.midamericaoutdoors.com, October 2006.